1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control technique for a screen to be displayed on a display unit of a computer system or the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique for controlling a design of a screen on a display in the situation where the size of the screen is changed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common type of a user interface utilized by a computer based systems includes a combination of input fields for inputting text and the like and labels for providing explanations for information to be inputted to the above-described input fields. For user interfaces utilized by business applications, the combination of the labels and their corresponding input fields is often arranged very closely. Therefore, an operating efficiency for determining the arrangement of such labels fields has a great effect on the productivity on graphical user interface or screen development for business applications.
FIG. 15 shows an example input screen having combinations of labels and input fields. As shown in FIG. 15, the input screen includes an arrangement of rectangular GUI parts in a predetermined rectangular container 1500. The container 1500 defines an outer frame of the input screen. FIG. 15 shows such GUI parts as labels 1501, input fields 1502 and buttons 1503 for inputting a command. It should be noted that although the labels 1501 are shown as text only in the container 1500, they are treated as being text labels within rectangles having the same color as the adjoining areas of the container 1500.
In FIG. 15, the arrangement position of each GUI part is specified in the container 1500 using corrdinate values. The values include the X-Y coordinates of a predetermined position of the rectangle (for example, a left upper vertex or the like), and the width (W) and the height (H) of the rectangle. Hereinafter these parameters are denoted collectively as XYWH.
Generally, an image prepared with the GUI may be changed in its display size or its display position on a display screen on the display unit of the computer. In the input screen shown in FIG. 15, if the display size of the container 1500 is changed, it is required to appropriately change the display positions of the labels 1501 and/or the buttons 1503, the display size of the input fields 1502 and the like depending on a new display size after the change to keep the balance of the whole screen. For changing the display of the labels 1501, the input fields 1502 and the buttons 1503, tools are generally prepared in software for developing such a screen, for example, GirdBagLayout and the like are used in Java®. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems.
In a development process for a business application, when a user interface screen is designed, the sizes and the arrangement of the above described container and the GUI parts are determined by trial and error. However, if the display size of the container is changed (expanded), there are many considerations to be taken into account. These include which part should be extended in the screen, how the display sizes or the arrangement of the GUI parts should be changed, etc. Considering these possibilities reduces developer productivity when designing the screen.
Furthermore, since the display sizes and the display positions of the GUI parts are specified with values of XYWH, it is a cumbersome and complicated task to reflect intuitively selected display sizes and arrangements on the actual screen. Therefore, performing this the task is largely inefficient.
In addition, tools for Visual Basic of Microsoft Corporation and the like include a function for changing the sizes and arrangements of the parts within the container relatively in response to a change in the size of the container. However, in this case, the characters of the labels and the characters to be inputted in the input fields are simply enlarged relative to the size of the container. Therefore, it is not preferable to use the function to change the arrangements of the GUI parts depending on the change in the display size of the container to maintain the balance of the whole screen.